A new research report by The Good Food Institute aims to understand the general population’s perceptions of plant-based products.
Specifically, the study aimed to identify the biggest drivers of purchase behaviour among consumers; the effect of differing descriptive language, such as plant-based, meatless, and vegan, in this category; and differing perceptions of plant-based foods among demographic groups. The results are formulated into recommendations for increasing purchase intent of plant-based products, bringing about positive behavior change, and influencing consumers to choose plant-based products over their conventional meat and dairy counterparts.
The study featured a combination of implicit tests (measuring the unconscious factors that influence people’s behavior) and explicit questions (measuring the conscious factors that influence people’s behavior). This approach is based on Daniel Kahneman’s System 1 / System 2 framework, which characterizes decision-making as a dichotomy between two modes of thinking: slow (System 1) and fast (System 2). Slow thinking is rational and deliberate, and the researchers captured it here by asking participants explicit questions. Fast thinking operates on intuition, emotion, and heuristic judgments, and it was captured using implicit reaction time tests. This thinking is more heavily relied on in everyday decision-making, such as making food purchasing decisions, and is influenced by previously held associations. Placing people under time pressure forces them to rely on their intuition and mental shortcuts to make decisions and accurately predicts how they would behave in the real world.
The researchers recruited a total of 2,518 U.S. participants over the age of 18. The sample was nationally representative in terms of demographic criteria, including race or ethnicity, age, and geographic location. They also collected data on participants’ educational backgrounds, political views, relationships to meat or food in general, and shopping habits. Participants were also nationally representative in terms of their diet types. The sample consisted predominantly of omnivores but also included flexitarians, pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans. A total of 363 participants stated that they would not consider consuming any variety of plant-based meat, eggs, or dairy, and the researchers subsequently excluded their results from the analysis. After they excluded these category rejectors, the final sample size was 2,155.
Stimuli consisted of 200 images of plant-based products, attributes were divided into 50 attributive words which related to associations consumers may hold with plant-based products and phrases were 32 plant-based category descriptors.
The project team recruited participants online using a panel provider, and they completed the tests on their PCs or laptops.
Key findings:
● Taste was the attribute most likely to drive purchase intent for all age groups and diet types. Taste should be prioritised above all else.
● Familiarity and tradition were also strong positive drivers of purchase intent. Consumers were more likely to purchase products that appeared familiar to them than those that appeared novel. Omnivore consumers liked products that looked comparable to their conventional meat or dairy counterparts and language that wasn’t unusual or incongruous.
● Freshness was a moderate positive driver for purchasing decisions.
● Health and nutrition positively correlated with purchase intent but less so than taste, familiarity, tradition, and freshness. The older the consumer, the more important the health profile of a product.
● Altruistic benefits, such as improved animal welfare and lighter environmental impact of the products, were low in the importance hierarchy for omnivore consumers and unlikely to drive purchase intent. These considerations were more likely to appeal to millennials than to any other demographic group, but they were still less important than taste, familiarity, and health.
● Positive taste connotations were generated by a number of factors, including vivid, tempting imagery of the product on pack; bright, saturated colors on a dark or light background; and visibility of the product through the packaging, although this was only when it looked similar to its conventional meat or dairy counterpart. Consumers perceived dark or brown packaging most positively, while boxes and pouches were the most popular format.
● The word plant was part of the most successful language to describe plant-based products, especially plant paired with protein—plant-protein, plant-based protein. Of the most commonly used terms—vegan, veggie, vegetarian, meatless, meat-free, plant-based—plant-based generated the greatest purchase intent and most frequent positive associations, and vegan performed the worst.
This suggests that the primary considerations when deciding whether to purchase a plant-based product all relate to how the product will benefit the individual consumer. Unless the product meets taste expectations and fits in with consumers’ existing perceptions of an animal-based meat or dairy product, its environmental or ethical profile is unlikely to influence the majority of consumers. Ultimately, this study found that the most effective way to make a product appealing is to emphasise personal attributes, such as taste, rather than perceived societal benefits.
The full report can be accessed here
The views expressed by our Research News contributors are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
